WOMAN OF VISION

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32422, 24 April 1944, Page 7

WOMAN OF VISION

N.Z. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE WORK OF MRS GRACE NEILL Sometimes referred to as the "Florence Nightingale of New Zealand,” because of her vision and the wise measures she inspired in the furtherance of her profession and the protection of nurses, Mrs Grace Neill is probably not remembered to-day by many New Zealand women. She was the first woman to hold a Government position under the Hospital and Charitable Aid administration, and in 1895 became assistant-inspector of hospitals. Mrs Neill had a wide view of nursing and an understanding of the struggles which nurses in many parts of the world were experiencing in their endeavour to gain recognised professional status. It was due to her representations made to the Government that the Nurses’ Registration Act was passed, the first such Act in any part of the world.

This inaugurated in New Zealand the three-year training. State examinations and official register of general trained nurses. This was followed by the passing of the Midwives’ Registration Act, resulting in a planned training and examination for obstetric nurses, with an oificial register. The Private Hospitals Act followed this and decreed that all such institutions should be under the

charge of a registered nurse or registered midwife and also determined the proportion of trained nurses to hospital beds. Thus were laid, by these three pieces of legislation, the foundation of a sound nursing system in the Dominion.